Bawumia visits COVID-19 Call Centre to familiarise himself with its operations

Vice President Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia, on Thursday, visited the state-of-the-art National Information Contact Centre (NICC) established to receive information and concerns from the public in relation to the measures being implemented by the Government against COVID-19.

The Centre is manned by personnel from the Ghana Health Service and other emergency service providers.

The 24/7 service was launched in the beginning of April, making it easier for the Government to receive vital information on its interventions.

Vice President Bawumia used his visit to the facility to respond to a call from Madam Eno Mary, a resident of Bawjiase, near Kasoa, who complained about the shortage of water in her area.

Dr Bawumia, therefore, urged the Ghana Water Company (GWCL) to attend to her concern.

The Vice President commended the hardworking staff for their contributions to the fight against the pandemic.

He stressed that gathering and availability of data played a significant role in the battle against the virus.

"Government’s reliance on data anchors Ghana’s approach to the fight, which is based on testing, tracing contacts of confirmed cases and treating them, and the work of the COVID-19 Centre is a major source of such primary data,"Dr Bawumia said.

“As you know, Government runs on information, and information produces data. We can then analyse the data and take decisions based on that.

" The setting up of this centre is very important because the government needs to hear from the people on the issues that concern them".

He said the information being gathered at the Centre was crucial to inform the Government’s decision in dealing with the disease.

"I am very impressed by what I’m seeing here today….Nobody should take COVID 19 lightly” Dr Bawumia warned.

“President Akufo-Addo has put in a lot of measures to tackle the pandemic, and these measures have resulted in an outcome that is reasonable for Ghana.

“As at yesterday, out of the 50, 719 tested, almost 99% were negative. That is, 641 are positive. This is because we are chasing the virus; we are not waiting like some other countries for the virus to come, for people to get sick and get to the hospitals.

"Ghana is doing something different. We are chasing the virus in the community, to trace, test people and treat them. Very different architecture that we are implementing in Ghana.

“If we hadn’t done this, all these people would have been going around infecting other people. I think the President’s focus on testing, tracing and treatment have yielded very good results…. By the grace of God, 94 % of those positive have mild or no symptoms. We have two persons who are critically ill and eight people, who had underlying conditions, have died.

“So God has been good to us, but we have to continue implementing all the guidance that we are doing right now. No large gatherings.

"We also wash our hands. We don’t shake hands. We continue all the social distancing measures. I can see that everyone here is wearing a mask, which is very good.”

Earlier, Information Minister Kojo Oppong Nkrumah stated that the Centre received 12,340 calls between April one and April 15, with enquiries largely centred on the provision of basic necessities and what to do if a case was suspected in their vicinity.

Anyone can call the Centre by dialling 311.